Father, we pause here for a moment to come to you in prayer. You, and you alone are worthy of our highest praise. You are holy. You are high and lifted up. You never change. You are Sovereign over all affairs of the world. You take down and you put up. You are from forever to forever. You are maker and creator of the universe. You formed the seas and told them where to go. You pulled up the mountains and laid out the green grass. Nothing is beyond you, Oh God.

And not only this but you, Lord, are love. You are life. You are where our true liberty is found. We are at a loss for words to express the infinite worth of your glory. Receive the praise of our worship this morning. In every song, every prayer, in the sermon that will come, and in the supper that will follow, receive our worship.

And as we meditate on such things, we are quickly struck by the distance that exists between who you are and what we are apart from your Son. We agree, Father, that this past week, we did not live as we should have lived. We did not treasure you for your infinite worth, but instead we sought our own.

Father, forgive us for placing other gods before you. The idols of jobs, relationships, vacations, materialistic goods, yes, even our own sleep, we have put these things before you. Forgive us.

Father, forgive us for bowing down to those images, those idols. How we have sacrificed for them, but we so rarely sacrifice for you. Forgive us.

Father, forgive us for the ways we have taken your name in vain. Whether that be uttering your name with contempt or in crude joking or in taking the name Christian, and abusing that name by abusing the grace you have given to even be named by you in the first place. Father, forgive us.

Father, forgive us for not observing the Sabbath. By our treating it like it were any other day. Thinking it no different than a Saturday. Forgive us for our lack of rest and our lack of attention to the duty of worship with your people on this Sabbath day. Forgive us, Lord.

Father, forgive us for the ways we have not honored our father and mothers. Lord, you told us that in honoring them it goes well with us. And yet, we too often neglect them or are annoyed by them. Forgive us.

Father, forgive us for the ways our anger is like murder. How we are angry with people and sin.

Father, forgive us for the ways we have committed adultery this week, through our entertaining lustful thoughts or pursuing those thoughts in the wicked degradation of pornography.

Father, forgive us for stealing from others. Taking something that is not ours.

Father, forgive us for lying. In an effort to hide the Truth, we have been dishonest, unlike you who is perfectly truthful.

Father, forgive us for our covetousness. We so often conform to this world and desire things that other people have instead of being content with what you have given us.

We are desperate people. We plead your grace-laced love that will forgive us of our sins! It is with this that we REJOICE that in Christ, we have redemption! We sinners, we bumbling, distracted, messy people who hope in Christ alone for salvation, WE HAVE Redemption. We don’t work towards it, but we HAVE it IN CHRIST who accomplished it for us and TO YOU and your glory. In Christ we have redemption through HIS blood, the forgiveness of all our sins according to the riches of YOUR grace. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Thank you Jesus.

Thank you for forgiveness. Thank you for life and breath. Thank you for friends, for family, for children, for the sun, the skies, for laughter, and good food. Thank you for the church. Thank you for THIS church, Restoration Church, and all the ways it serves as a refuge for our weary souls. Thank you Jesus for securing us EVERYTHING that we need.

So, it is with this that we can boldly, and confidently petition you on your throne.

Lord, I pray for J, P, W as they have now joined this church. As well as M and J as they join with us through baptism. Lord we rejoice that you have brought them to us. Would you cause your face to shine upon them as they submit to you and to the church? May their time with us be marked as days of tremendous growth in the knowledge of your will and the depth of your love. Lead them to serve others sacrificially here in the church as we seek to serve them.

Father, I pray for P, for K, for H, and H. May these sisters have the BEST of times in prayer in the coming week. May they enjoy you as they seek you.

For my brothers. I pray for J, L, S, S, V. God, may these brothers boldly proclaim the Gospel to someone that needs it this week. And may we come back here next week and learn of what came of their boldness.

Father, we not only pray for ourselves, but we also pray for other gospel-believing churches around the world. For the church Harshit Singh leads in Lucknow, India, for K as he leads his church in Kenya…for J as he leads Covenant Life church in Tampa. Oh God, be good to them by showing them more and more of yourself. May those churches spread the gospel and uphold their calling to be set apart from the world. Protect them. Give them more leaders and more converts born to you.

Lastly, Father, I pray for this church. That we would grow in diversity. Diversity of age, ethnicity, and economics. Insofar as Ward 3 allows, may we reflect our community. And may we, the church that is Restoration Church band together in order to shine a beacon of light to a people in need. May we MAGNIFY The Sufficiency of our Savior. In our lives and in our doctrine, may we say to all–Christ is GLORIOUS. And He is not only worthy to be lived for, but He is also worthy to die for. Grant that we would be passionate about your glory!

Bless our brother J as he comes in a moment to preach the majesty of Jesus Christ. May we give ourselves to his words as we trust that they are your words for us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.